Are the terrible twos real? Well, if we want them to be, maybe. Lack of vocabulary, grandiose demands, and a high need for independence equals an enormous task of patience for those of us navigating these toddler waters. Most of the time, I tend to think toddlers are just curious little people desperately trying to figure out the world.

Within seconds after birth as you hold your child in your arms and look into those precious eyes, you know it--this life is completely dependent upon you.

The power of love parents have for their children is a force unmatched. As parents, we have a built in capacity to love and shape the lives we have been entrusted with. We may have the best intentions when they are born to love them to the best of our ability, but unless we spend time cultivating what we value, our best intentions will fall short.

In this track, we go after the pressure we all feel to be PERFECT parents. As if just surviving as a parent wasn't enough, our culture can often make us feel like we're not doing enough or saying it right or should be doing this and not doing that.

This is the third of my three-part blog on the top priority of leadership. Every leader who wants to be led by the Spirit will be looking to produce certain effects in the people and in the culture where they are leading—in particular, increased levels of freedom and safety. In the last blog, I explored the nature of biblical freedom. Now I want to dig in to the idea of safety

These days, a lot of people seem to think that freedom means license to do whatever they choose—and even to avoid any negative consequences for their choices. It also seems to be a common belief that freedom is something we humans create for ourselves—that it is bestowed on us by society, won and defended by the military, or achieved through laws and politics.

Are the terrible twos real? Well, if we want them to be, maybe. Lack of vocabulary, grandiose demands, and a high need for independence equals an enormous task of patience for those of us navigating these toddler waters. Most of the time, I tend to think toddlers are just curious little people desperately trying to figure out the world.

Are the terrible twos real? Well, if we want them to be, maybe. Lack of vocabulary, grandiose demands, and a high need for independence equals an enormous task of patience for those of us navigating these toddler waters. Most of the time, I tend to think toddlers are just curious little people desperately trying to figure out the world.

When establishing and maintaining an environment of honor, I am not only responsible to give good feedback and engage others with effective confrontation—I must also be approachable to receive feedback.

If we are going to practice covenant, we must practice forgiveness, and covenant comes into being through death. Where I am willing to die to protect this relationship. Therefore, forgiveness requires death. For me to die to my expectations, for me to die to accusations, for me to even die to emotions that I am keeping stirred up.

For many Christians, this is difficult to grasp. We have the core values of honor, love for the poor, serving others, laying down our lives, and being the hands and feet of Jesus. It’s easy to think that it is spiritual to offer all people unlimited access to our lives. But everyone who tries to do this eventually discovers that it is not sustainable, healthy, or spiritual…at all.

Repentance means to change the way you think. In order to repent from a life of powerlessness, you will need to identify the lies you believe and the influence those lies have in your life. Once you identify these lies, you renounce them and break your agreement with them. Then ask Holy Spirit to come and tell you the truth.

This is the third of my three-part blog on the top priority of leadership. Every leader who wants to be led by the Spirit will be looking to produce certain effects in the people and in the culture where they are leading—in particular, increased levels of freedom and safety. In the last blog, I explored the nature of biblical freedom. Now I want to dig in to the idea of safety

These days, a lot of people seem to think that freedom means license to do whatever they choose—and even to avoid any negative consequences for their choices. It also seems to be a common belief that freedom is something we humans create for ourselves—that it is bestowed on us by society, won and defended by the military, or achieved through laws and politics.

When God’s presence shows up in an environment, He creates freedom. Sadly, this truth remains a mystery to a lot of people, because in so many places that claim to have God showing up, there’s anything BUT freedom

When establishing and maintaining an environment of honor, I am not only responsible to give good feedback and engage others with effective confrontation—I must also be approachable to receive feedback.

We simply cannot grow and build meaningful connections if we don’t hear about how the people around us are experiencing us. Feedback gives us the information we need to take responsibility for how we are affecting our environment and adjust in order to protect what is important to us.

One of the goals of confrontation is to restore a right relationship. In a confrontation, we are looking for repentance in the heart of the individual when we offer opportunities for grace to be extended.

Are the terrible twos real? Well, if we want them to be, maybe. Lack of vocabulary, grandiose demands, and a high need for independence equals an enormous task of patience for those of us navigating these toddler waters. Most of the time, I tend to think toddlers are just curious little people desperately trying to figure out the world.

Within seconds after birth as you hold your child in your arms and look into those precious eyes, you know it--this life is completely dependent upon you.

The power of love parents have for their children is a force unmatched. As parents, we have a built in capacity to love and shape the lives we have been entrusted with. We may have the best intentions when they are born to love them to the best of our ability, but unless we spend time cultivating what we value, our best intentions will fall short.

In this track, we go after the pressure we all feel to be PERFECT parents. As if just surviving as a parent wasn't enough, our culture can often make us feel like we're not doing enough or saying it right or should be doing this and not doing that.

In a culture of honor, leaders lead by courageously treating people according to the names God gives them and not according to the aliases they receive from people. People create an alias for themselves when they choose to believe a lie as truth. For instance, if a child is behaving poorly, a parent can choose to say, “You are such a bad kid. Why would you do something so stupid?” Or, a parent can choose to say, “I know you felt frustrated by what happened.

It takes time, attention and wisdom. We need to become students of who our kids are. The best way to prepare our children to handle the multitude of options they will have as children of the king of kings is to invest in developing heart to heart connection. This connection replaces the disrespect factory and introduces the honor factory.

There are basically 3 guidelines for setting limits with choices. Choices are a way for us to empower our children. We expose them to the real world of responsibility by offering choices-lots of choices. I derived these guidelines from the “Becoming a love and logic parent” materials.